“There is infinite capital in the world today,” proclaimed General Electric chief executive Jeff Immelt in December 2006. At that time in Eastern Maine, we had just gone through the outsourcing of more than 2,800 jobs. Thousands of families were struggling to make ends meet.
Doubtlessly, Immelt knows a lot about “infinite capital.” We’re sure he could tell us quite a bit about how Wall Street, awash with “infinite capital,” chased riskier and riskier investments until it crashed. But we can also learn about our current economic crisis right here in our backyard, through listening to the workers who produce so much of our country’s wealth.
Over the past five months, Brewer-based organization Food AND Medicine surveyed 107 workers who had lost union jobs between 2000 and 2008. They came out of Eastern Fine Paper in Brewer, International Paper in Costigan and Passadumkeag, Georgia-Pacific in Old Town, Domtar in Baileyville and DHL in Brewer. Worker after worker told a story of struggle. Twenty-one percent lost their health insurance completely, while 25 percent are on their spouse’s plan at times with premiums costing up to $600 a month. Eighty-five percent lost their defined benefit pension. Very few — 23 percent — are still in a union. Most are working nonunion in the service industry. They have taken huge pay cuts — 31 percent on average. Many have had to take a series of temporary jobs or several jobs at once.
The loss in revenue for eastern Maine has been staggering. As pulp and paper workers average $58,136 per year, a 31 percent pay cut translates into losing $18,022 per worker or more than $37 million per year out of the eastern Maine economy.
Food AND Medicine’s forthcoming report, titled “Where Are They Now?” follows Maine workers as they enter an economy where workers receive less for their work. The jobs currently available to laid-off workers — in health care, retail, food service, truck driving, maintenance and other services — have proved staggeringly difficult for workers to unionize, and the gains in wages, benefits and democratic voice that workers fought for and won in the manufacturing industry over 90 years have mostly disappeared. Research by the Economic Policy Institute has shown that, since 1980, workers have steadily become more productive while wages have remained flat. Without the balancing effect of unions, the divide between rich and poor has grown unchecked.
What does this mean? For workers and their families, it means going without health insurance, refinancing your home, charging medical bills to your credit cards, being penalized for cashing out your hard-earned retirement savings, or any of the numerous crippling and humiliating experiences that laid-off workers shared with us. It means going from making $19 an hour with benefits at the mill to making $10 an hour without benefits at a chain retailer, even though you work nights and rarely get to see your family. For our community, it means fewer tax dollars, fewer customers for local businesses, more families needing public assistance or unable to pay their medical bills.
For out-of-state shareholders and executives, though, it means more money. In 1973, average compensation for CEOs was 27 times higher than for workers. Today, it is 344 times higher.
Food AND Medicine has seen firsthand how corporations have kept gains from reaching workers and communities. We supported workers in organizing for better conditions at major service employers such as DHL and Eastern Maine Medical Center. In both cases, the workers faced fear and repression. Improvements only came after spending tremendous resources.
DHL illegally fired nearly all its workers. But the workers, with tremendous community support, fought back and picketed nonstop for 13 weeks and ultimately won. Nobody should have to go through such an ordeal just to exercise a basic human right. The Employee Free Choice Act, which would reform labor law to make the organizing process easier for workers, comes at a time of dire need.
“Infinite capital” on Wall Street while workers and communities suffer simply doesn’t work. During this economic crisis, passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is all the more important. Our economy needs workers to organize and bargain for a fair share. It’s not only about doing what’s right for workers, it’s about rebuild-ing our economy to be balanced and sustainable. Only then will it work for all of us.
Steve Husson of Hampden is a former Teamster who helped organize workers at DHL. He is special projects director at Food AND Medicine. Martin Chartrand of Brewer is office manager at Food AND Medicine.